Words cannot describe how much I love and adore this song, or how much I admire and respect it’s author.

My shackled feet they long to be free from,
This modern Rome.
The ancient moors and the granite shores they are,
Calling me home.

(Chorus)
Sometimes this city is too much to bear,
I hear a calling in my soul,
The Mother’s waterways will take me,
Where life has begun,
Under a Beltane Sun.

Cuckoo calls and the seed falls as the,
Children play.
Skylark sings to the swift on the wing in the,
Bright clear day.

Salmon swims and the diamond stream sings with,
The blackbird’s song.
Voice in the breeze well it whispers please won’t you,
Sing along.

Under a Beltane Sun by Damh the Bard, from his latest studio album, Antlered Crown and Standing Stone, has become one of my all-time favourite songs.

It was Beltane when I first heard it, and it described the day perfectly. I remember just sitting back, relaxing in the sun, with this song humming through my speakers.

While the Northern Hemisphere, and indeed the shops here in Australia, are preparing for Samhain and Halloween, I’m looking forward to Beltane. I love Beltane! Of the four lesser Sabbats it’s easily my favourite. It has a wonderful energy when celebrated in formal ritual or in the bedroom with your lover (or anywhere in the house, let’s be imaginative!)

Within the Neopagan traditions it’s a celebration of the Goddess and the God coming together to mate. It’s a celebration of sex, and lust, and romance, and dirty bodies and sweat and pheromones! It’s a season to celebrate being on heat, of our longing desires for skin-to-skin touch; of hair pulling and weird and sometimes awkward sounds that we didn’t know we were able to make.

Her consort. For this night, the man whose name she had yet to discover stood opposite her, radiating masculinity. His thin athletic build glistened with sweat; shadows highlighted the curve of muscles in his shoulders and arms. She took in his tattoos; the intricate pentagram over his heart; and the stag charging up his arm. Her eyes glanced down following the shadows of his torso, down the trail of hair beneath his naval and his little pot belly.

My ‘Beltane’ Short Story.

It’s a celebration of the fertility of the land, much like Ostara. The grass is gorgeous and green, bushes are alive with their flowers opening to the sun’s warm gaze, the world feels lush.

Among the stray cats we’ve adopted, Little Sox keeps showing her bottom to one of our boys, Caspar. Even though she’s not long had a litter (it didn’t survive) she’s still on heat. Caspar, on the other hand, is a guts and is only interested in food. He’s so far shown no interest in sex (which is good, as we think those two share the same mother…) but it is fun watching her try to attract him after she’s adored him with head bumps and kisses. (We’ll get them fixed once we’re able to catch them, they’re too smart for their own good).

Beltane is upon us! Get out doors, soak in the sun and the Vitamin D! And…y’know…frolick!

I’ll be going to a weekend Beltane festival held here in Sydney by Gliding Seal Events. I can’t wait!